Compared to last year’s sweltering heat, Metropole Orkest, but Soft Kill start off in Roadburn ‘19 started on Thursday by Koepelhal with a stab of feedback that offering us bright but pleasantly brisk sounds almost exactly like the beginning days. Portentous clouds loom over the of Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran.” If you take campsite on Friday, however, so I make that and blend it with a generous splash of my way down past the Piushaven to mid-period Cure you’ve got a working consider this omen over a now-traditional description of their set. It’s good, and I two-hour vegan breakfast at Bagel & normally would’ve stayed longer, but it’s Beans. Is it lingering effects from Lingua also music I’ve spent most of my life Ignota’s soul-searing set on the floor of listening to. the Green Room yesterday or sinister resonances from the frankly unsettling amount of clashes I have to manage today? Who can say? Triptykon - Paul Verhagen I move on to an impromptu repeat of Vile Creature’s devastating drum/guitar assault Throane - Paul Verhagen in the skate park – now the de facto “why the hell not” venue for ad hoc gigs. It’s The only way to find out is to dive right hard to describe the blend of ferocity and in, so off to the Koepelhal I go for joy that this duo summon up. Vile, Throane. Arranged around a Damoclean certainly, but also deliciously life- dagger, the band’s five members fill the affirming. venue with a swirl of astonishingly dense black metal. By weaponising the From there it’s back to the Main Stage moments of sparsity and silence, in a way where Anna Von Hausswolff promptly similar to that perfected by Amenra, blows away the cobwebs left by Throane sound all the louder when their Triptykon. Playing a majestic, imperious full force is unleashed. set, the band fade like spectres into the bright blue backlights. Their music - The Main Stage is, inevitably, already rumbling, seismic organ and soaring packed to the rafters by the time I turn up vocals that invoke the ancient sorcery of for Triptykon’s special set with the Lisa Gerrard – quickly becomes its own primeval entity; the roar of a great wind or Fauna’s but no less demanding of the howl of the unquiet dead. Gig of the day attention. Each track escalates, Emma’s for me! beautiful whoop of a voice soars along with Thou’s rocket-fuel riffs and it feels as if the venue’s roof might lift clean off the building. Anna Von Hausswolff - Niels Vinck As if summoned by that selfsame sorcery, strange chimes and birdsong prelude the At the Gates - Niels Vinck onslaught of Fauna’s atavistic black metal fury. It’s hard not to get caught up in the At the Gates are a band I appreciate theatrical tumult of bodies whirling through rather than like, which is perhaps a incense smoke and, as much as they might blasphemous thing to say at Roadburn, not understand the electric guitars onstage but I’m always drawn to a promise of a and glowing iPhones in the crowd, humans special show. Teaming up with Anna of all kinds throughout time would see the Von Hausswolff to play Philip Glass’ same need to perform and be seen to minimalist masterpiece “Koyaanisqatsi” perform. is not what I expected and not what I’m fully prepared to deal with at this stage in the day so I scuttle off to a more comfortable place; the glacial, ethereal goth of Drab Majesty. They are wonderful and alien and haunting in a way that anyone who spent their teenage years staring out of rain-smeared windows to a soundtrack of the Sisters of Mercy and sneering self-pity will understand. Thou / Emma Ruth Rundle - Paul Verhagen Which, despite there still being more to see, is a good feeling for me to end the Over in the Koepelhal, the same venue she night on. Until today, comrades. claimed as her own on Thursday, Emma – Daniel Pietersen Ruth Rundle joins Thou to power their way through a collection of specially-written music that is less demonstrative than When JJ asked if anyone on the WCD Studying their self-titled album, myriad crew would be interested in profiling concert and video clips, and scouring the “The Weirdest Band at Roadburn,” I web yielded few new clues (though it immediately raised my hand (though it made me wonder what it says about me was hard to tell via email). The weirdest that I didn’t find their tunes quite as odd band at Roadburn? That’s a high bar if I as the title would suggest). What I did ever heard of one. Naturally, I was discover was that URAN have a wizard- intrigued to find out more. like ability to fuse an eclectic array of high-octane musical styles, including swaggering rock ‘n’ roll, hallucinogenic psych, twisted space rock, and sweaty punk with plenty of frenetic energy. So, maybe URAN are actually aliens using their music to eek out coded messages to the home planet. Maybe they’re cult leaders on a roaring quest for new converts. Maybe they’re mad scientists experimenting with sonic weaponry as a means of mind control. Or maybe they’re just a bunch of Swedish It turns out that URAN GBG, the band in musicians who know how to get a party question, is as much of a mystery as any going. In any case, I can’t wait to find out. band could be in our interconnected – Jamie Ludwig times. We know they’re from the Gothenburg, Sweden, we know there are URAN GBG will play tonight on the a LOT of them, and we know Thomas Main Stage at 23:40. Lindberg is a fan... but who the actual hell are they? More Info: www.facebook.com/URAN-GBG- 161307000571023/ During Roadburn 2019, there is one Not only was this a great honour for such exceptional piece planned, titled a festival, it was also an inspiring MAALSTROOM. This cooperative effort opportunity. So, as the title indicates, it is captures the most innovative side of the a maelstrom, a torrent of ideas coming Dutch black metal scene with musicians together and boldly giving itself over to from Fluisteraars, Terzij De Horde, Grey the audience at Roadburn 2019.” Aura, Witte Wieven, Verwoed, Laster, Turia and Project Nefast. It really is a It has not come without challenge, as massive undertaking. Carmen of Witte Wieven explains, “It takes quite a bit of project management as we’re working on separate parts with multiple people, each contributing in work and creativity. This means a lot of time in meeting, discussing and aligning our work, but the result is well worth it.” What can be expected is clouded in mystery, as well it should be, but O. is willing to share a little more about the concept and story. “The piece will follow a narrative, written by the literarily- inclined participants in MAALSTROOM, about the process of moving from a village to the big city, or the other way around. It’s a common experience for most of us and story a monotonous existence versus the overwhelming mass and tumultuousness.” Prepare to get dragged along in the intense vortex – a maelstrom, to be sure – of progressive Dutch black metal. – Guido Segers MAALSTROOM will perform this O., as member of Fluisteraars one of the commissioned show tonight at the Het musicians involved, explains: Petronaat starting 23:00. “The project actually starts with Walter, who proposed a joint piece by young, creative black metal musicians. Musicians that recast black metal in their own perceptions and with new ideas. ...Picking up from where we left off and as soon as we started doing that, the yesterday in speaking to At the Gates big project of the comeback record At frontman and The Burning Darkness War with Reality in 2014, it's been curator Tomas Lindberg as he was on tour building and building, and now we feel with Behemoth: like we've proven we can be a contemporary band and we're just enjoying it. We can do the odd turns to throw people off and still be able to pull it off. That's what we always were back in the '90s, and I think we're back to that ambitious, progressive death metal. Roadburn fits into that perfectly, because when we did the last record [To Drink from the Night Itself], we already tried to stretch it out a little bit, have more progressive parts tying in with our old past, which is pretty progressive for being death metal (laughs). Just indulging yourself in this massive project, which it is, it's very intriguing and inspiring. So we feel that we really have to push ourselves farther than usual, to actually become a Roadburn band, which is not easy. People will get a mix though. They will still get some of the cornerstones of our set as well. We won't play a 90-minute, At the Gates have toured, put records totally weird set. It'll be in and out. out, and made the transition from a reunion band to a working band. Where do you see Roadburn fitting in with that? It's all a natural progression. We really enjoyed just being the reunion band for a couple years, but we are all creative persons, restless. There was something missing, to express yourself musically, This tour, a lot of people are into us, but they’re mainly another band’s fans that we have to win over a little bit.